Fund Created for Fighting Wildfires

The House voted 412 to 3 to create a fund to cover the costs of combating major wildfires. President Obama’s budget proposal included $357 million for a similar fund. The House bill, which now goes to the Senate, does not specify a dollar amount, which would be set later in spending bills. Lawmakers hope a reserve fund will make it less likely the Forest Service and other federal agencies will have to dip into other parts of their budgets that are dear to lawmakers to pay for fighting fires. The Forest Service and Interior Department

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The painting is by Frederik Marianus Kruseman

New forest zone to help protect N Gujarat wildlife

AHMEDABAD: The state forest department has decided to have one more zone for effective monitoring of wild life sanctuaries in the state. This will be which will be the north Gujarat zone - fifth in the state. Wild life sanctuaries like Wild Ass Sanctuary, Nal Sarovar and Thol will come under this zone.

This move comes after the forest department set up a task force in the aftermath of lion poaching incidents in Gir. Officials in the department felt the need to adopt a focused approach , backed with technology since resources in the Gir sanctuary were over-worked .

Now, the department has carved out north Gujarat as a separate area for better forest management. Eleven new posts, including that of conservator of forests, will be created for upgrade of national parks and sanctuaries in north Gujarat area.

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The painting is by Laura Tasheiko

"Heal Your Body, Heal the Planet" Tree Planting Program

SCOTTSDALE, AZ--(Marketwire - May 2, 2008) - In the Southwest United States alone, nearly two million acres of forest are now gone, destroyed by recent catastrophic wildfires. An estimated 1.2 million hectares of Brazilian Amazon rainforest have been destroyed by illegal soya bean farming. And throughout Honduras, Panama, Belize, and Nicaragua, slash-and-burn farming is the leading cause of rainforest destruction in that region. This ongoing destruction upsets many land and water-based ecosystems, which in turn will take many, many years to replace. Plus, the loss of millions of trees increases the negative effects of carbon dioxide (CO2). Trees act as a carbon sink by removing the carbon from carbon dioxide and storing it as cellulose in the trunk while releasing the oxygen back into the air. One healthy tree stores around 13 pounds of carbon each year, or some 2.6 tons per acre every year.

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